Portugal History

Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan may seem unlikely rivals for Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. But under an ambitious plan by a group of U.S. businessmen, the 15th-Century Portuguese explorers could vie with Walt Disney stars as major European theme park attractions. A U.S.-owned company, backed by the Portuguese government, is planning an $80-million to $100-million theme park near Lisbon, based on the pioneering Portuguese sea voyages to Africa, Asia and the New World some 500 years ago.

An 11-day tour to Portugal that highlights its music, history and folklore departs Oct. 1. The small group tour will be led by Donald Cohen, an expert on Portugal. The group will visit Lisbon, Obidos, Alcobaca, Tomar, Bussaco, Porto, Viana do Castelo, Guimara~es, Sintra and Cascais as well as some other towns, villages and vineyards.

Here are some scenes from the black-and-white yesterday of an ancient land on the western rim of Europe: Portuguese literati traveling to Paris to see movies banned by government censors; thrill-seeking teen-agers crossing the Spanish border (closed at night) to taste Coca-Cola forbidden at home. "It was another planet; a silent country where people were not allowed to speak and there was nothing to say," says Isabel Carlos, a 32-year-old art critic.

Here are some scenes from the black-and-white yesterday of an ancient land on the western rim of Europe: Portuguese literati traveling to Paris to see movies banned by government censors; thrill-seeking teen-agers crossing the Spanish border (closed at night) to taste Coca-Cola forbidden at home. "It was another planet; a silent country where people were not allowed to speak and there was nothing to say," says Isabel Carlos, a 32-year-old art critic.

An 11-day tour to Portugal that highlights its music, history and folklore departs Oct. 1. The small group tour will be led by Donald Cohen, an expert on Portugal. The group will visit Lisbon, Obidos, Alcobaca, Tomar, Bussaco, Porto, Viana do Castelo, Guimara~es, Sintra and Cascais as well as some other towns, villages and vineyards.

Mirandes, the everyday language spoken by only 15,000 people in a remote mountain region of Portugal, has won official recognition. Although it may sound like Portuguese spoken by a Spaniard or vice versa, experts say Mirandes is a distinct language in its own right. The Latin-based tongue developed around Miranda do Douro in the northeastern Tras-os-Montes region of Portugal after the Moors were driven out of the Iberian peninsula in the 15th Century.

Greece won the European Championship in one of the biggest upsets in soccer history, beating host Portugal, 1-0, Sunday on Angelos Charisteas' goal early in the second half. Charisteas scored in the 57th minute with a header off a corner kick from Angelos Basinas. Giourkas Seitaridis went on a speedy run down the right side and was stopped by a block by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, with the ball rolling over the end line.

Italy has some tremendous soccer players, the sort who never give up, never stop running, never stop seeking ways to win. All of that was evident Tuesday, when Italy overcame Germany and almost 65,000 German fans at the caldron of noise that is Westfalen Stadium in a World Cup semifinal that crackled with tension and that was not decided until overtime itself had all but expired.

THE EARTHQUAKE that leveled Lisbon in 1755 shook more than the ground, journalist Nicholas Shrady reveals in this lively account. It flattened religious and philosophical certainties as well, and it was an equal-opportunity disturber of the peace, discrediting the reactionary orthodoxy that held Portugal in an iron grip even as it challenged the optimistic creed of the rationalists seeking to loosen that grip all over Europe.

Art historian Paul Blanchard, a resident of Florence, is offering a tour that includes many meetings with members of the local art community in Tuscany and Umbria. Sponsored by the Educated Traveler, the tour (from Nov. 12 to 19) will take a small group to visit private art collections, many of which are housed in ancestral villas.

Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan may seem unlikely rivals for Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. But under an ambitious plan by a group of U.S. businessmen, the 15th-Century Portuguese explorers could vie with Walt Disney stars as major European theme park attractions. A U.S.-owned company, backed by the Portuguese government, is planning an $80-million to $100-million theme park near Lisbon, based on the pioneering Portuguese sea voyages to Africa, Asia and the New World some 500 years ago.

An era is ending for Portugal, the late-blooming Atlantic nation that rocketed out of backwardness and dictatorship to become a star of the new Europe. Mario Soares, the Socialist president who was doughty midwife to a new-founded Portuguese democracy, is serving his last year. Across the political spectrum, Anibal Cavaco Silva, the free-market prime minister who made democratic principles work economically over a fruitful decade, is abandoning power even sooner.